1. Field of the Invention
An aspect of the present invention relates to a text-input device and method, and, more particularly, to a text-input device and a method of operating a text-input device that enables a user to efficiently input text to a portable digital device, thereby minimizing input error.
2. Description of the Related Art
As computing technologies are developed, the widespread use of portable digital devices such as personal digital assistants (PDA), portable multimedia players (PMP), Play Station Portables™ (PSP), tablet personal computers (PC) increases. Portable digital devices use the following text-input methods.
In the first text-input method, Korean or English letters are mapped to a plurality of number keys. If number keys are input by a user, the input numbers are converted into text codes, and the converted text is displayed. The text-input method is usually used for cellular phones or PDAs that have mobile phone functions.
In the second method, a software keyboard is displayed via a display unit having a touch screen function. And, x- and y-coordinates of the position that a user touches using a stylus (an input means of a PDA) are displayed after being converted into a text code.
In the third method, text is input using a separate keyboard.
However, the conventional text-input methods have a problem in that portability is hampered if a separate keyboard is used, and miniaturizing a digital device may be difficult if text is mapped to a plurality of number keys. Further, since they are small, portable digital devices have a small software keyboard displayed via a display unit. Thus, when a user inputs text using the software keyboard, input error is likely to occur due to the fact that it is not easy to input text.